Don's team, Team Don, knew he had the goods to deliver something magical. Then, two days before the race, a collision with a truck ended Don’s Hawaiian dreams. His race was over before it began. As he lay on the road, still hopeful of being able to race, he had no way of knowing he had just broken his neck and had sustained injuries that would immobilize him for four months.

Within 48 hours, the 40-year-old Brit, who has been racing professionally for more than 20 years, flew home to Boulder, Colo., where he met with Dr. Alan Villavicencio, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon. Along with his wife, Kelly, Tim patiently listened to the finite options. Dr. Villavicencio delicately explained that 95 per cent of people with Don’s injuries choose surgery; a procedure that severely limits long-range mobility and stymies the body's mechanics required for swimming and cycling. The alternative was three months in a Halo, a barbaric looking device that immobilizes the upper body, using four cranially inserted titanium bolts and an upper body traction brace that extends from neck to navel.

"I agreed to it, not really knowing what it (the Halo) was," says Don. What he did know was that he had to give himself another chance to race—and that he would do whatever it took. "I couldn’t move in it," he says of the device. "But when the doctor told me it meant I would have a 90 per cent chance of a 100 per cent recovery it really was my only option. It was a very tough few months. My wife, family and friends all over the world were just amazing; the support was overwhelming and humbling."

A lesser man, or perhaps a lesser athlete, may have crumbled and cracked under the circumstances. But Don, a former ITU world champion and three-time Olympian, is a different breed of both. He has put together a team of coaches and experts to help him get back to world-record breaking fitness. "I am giving 100 percent to being back in 7:40:23 IRONMAN shape in 2018," he says. "It will be a tough road but I am committed and have an amazing team around me."

Team Don consists of coach Julie Dibens, cycling coach Matt Bottrill, physiotherapist John Dennis, strength and conditioning coach Amy Quirion, and manager Franko Vatterott. The team has a simple and singular goal: to get their man back where he belongs. The team is keenly aware of the obstacles ahead but is behind him unequivocally in his bid for a Kona podium. With the added love and support of his wife Kelly and their children, Matilda, 7, and Hugo, 3, Team Don believes they will achieve their goal.

"I am giving 100 percent to being back in 7:40:23 IRONMAN shape in 2018."

"Tim is a world champion," Dibens says. "I believe he will be again. I just don’t think you get to be a world champion through luck or talent alone. It takes a certain personality, a huge amount of discipline and desire to be the best you can be. Tim has that and since the accident he has just turned that energy and drive into rehabbing as best he can."

Vatterott sees the special personality type in Don, too. According to Vatterott: "Sometimes you don't get to fully test the strength of someone's character until they are put in an unthinkable situation. Tim had the season of his life going into Kona and was so excited to show the IRONMAN world his form. To go from such a high to such a low was so demoralizing. But this is a story about the unbreakable human spirit and a man whose heart is bigger than a Corvette engine."

Don won the ITU World Championship in 2006 and has known fellow Brit Dibens since 1999 and their days on the British ITU team. The two have been working together as coach-athlete since 2014, with Matt Bottrill bringing in cycling-specific coaching since the summer of 2016. As an integral part of Dibens' squad in Boulder, Don’s talent and work ethic are contagious and dwarfed only by his hugely positive outlook and cheeky sense of humor.

"I am sure behind the scenes it’s been tougher than he has made it out to be, but he has been amazing," says Dibens. "He’s been diligent at staying positive and focusing each day on being the best athlete he can be rather than worry about the stuff he couldn’t be doing, which at times was pretty much everything."

Bottrill and Dibens worked closely before the Hawaii accident, mapping out Don’s training, tracking hours, watts, splits and progress. The pair continues to do so now. "I love the process of working with Tim," says UK-based Bottrill.

"I honestly believe he can come back stronger than ever. He’s a true champion. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster but what always amazes me with Tim is he handles stress and pressure very well. While battling his emotions he can still focus on returning. Even the day after the accident we were chatting about 2018."

Although his sights are firmly set on returning to Kona, in the shorter term Team Don knows there is hard work to be done. John Dennis, who met Don more than a decade ago when he was lead physiotherapist at the English Institute of Sport, has travelled to the US from the UK twice to work with Don since the accident. "At this stage, Tim is probably under more of a medically controlled program with the sessions set by his coaches contributing to getting him moving effectively again," says Dennis. "We are almost training to train right now and will gradually transfer to working more exclusively with his coaches again when he is back in full training."

After the removal of the Halo in early January, Don spent the next four weeks in a neck brace, which was removed on January 30. For the first time in four months, he was able to run on an AlterG and swim. It was a day he had been dreaming of seemingly forever. But even prior to this, Don was a regular fixture at the gym, working on strength and mobility and logging indoor rides at home on Zwift.

Don's first goal is to run the Boston Marathon in April and after that potentially target a late summer IRONMAN to qualify for the big dance in Kona.

"The limitations of getting back into full training will be my neck range of movement," he says. "As I get that back I have to be careful I don't get any unrelated injures; this is the longest time I’ve not swum, bike or run. Ultimately I have to listen to my body and all those around me in my coaching and rehab team. I won't be doing anything silly that could hurt my comeback, so everything is loosely planned for now."

The training plans may be loose and adaptive, but the dreams and vision are still simple, singular and focused. All the things that made Tim Don a world record breaker—his burning desire, team and family support, meticulous attention to detail, indomitable spirit, humor and humility—are the very things that are carrying him through the toughest time of his professional life.

And they are also the very things which could just lead him to the Kona crown that so cruelly eluded him in 2017.

Emma-Kate Lidbury is a journalist turned professional triathlete who only discovered the sport when asked to write a feature on it back in 2005. Since then she’s won six IRONMAN 70.3 titles and continues to write for publications around the world. Originally from the UK, she now lives and trains in Boulder, Colorado.